chemistry

Coffee is a key ingredient in the scientific process for many researchers, so it’s no wonder that researchers often develop an interest in the drink’s physics and chemistry. In a new study, a research team devised an objective method to test both a coffee’s strength and its roast color. The researchers used a potentiostat to […]

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 16 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41557-026-02182-x Many peptides that activate class B1 GPCRs, such as the glucagon receptor (GCGR) or the parathyroid hormone receptor-1 (PTH1R4), are α-helical in the active receptor-bound form. Now, despite destabilizing the helical conformation of parent glucagon and PTH agonists, the presented design strategy generates potent and …

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame and collaborators have discovered a key process in how the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria attaches to the cell wall, advancing the understanding of how these bacteria frequently develop resistance to antibiotics. The research, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, was carried out in the […]

Lithium-metal batteries are widely regarded as one of the most promising routes toward cell-level energy densities beyond the limit of conventional graphite-based lithium-ion batteries. However, the practical energy delivered by a lithium-metal cell is not determined only by the theoretical capacity of the cathode or the low potential of lithium metal. In many cases, the accessible energy is grad…

Researchers discovered that hydrogen radicals generated by intense UV light can break down stubborn PFAS “forever chemicals” without added chemicals. The breakthrough reveals a key mechanism that could lead to greener and more effective technologies for permanently destroying these pollutants.

The laws of chemistry get pushed to the limits in Jenny Bergner’s astrochemistry lab at the University of California, Berkeley, where she is pondering some of the biggest questions in the universe: How do planets form? And how did life arise in the first place? To do so, she leads a team studying the exotic chemistry that happens under the crushing cold and near-perfect vacuum of interstellar spa…

Steven Chavez’s path to chemical engineering started with a teacher, Kelly Silva. “You have a knack for this,” Silva told him one day after chemistry class. She moved him into her advanced chemistry course and urged him to work hard. Now Chavez is at the University of California, Los Angeles, studying catalysts—materials that facilitate chemical processes. Catalysts are used frequently in industr…

Kaiyi Jiang grew up in a family of doctors in China and saw the limits of the profession. No matter what the physicians in his family tried, sometimes their patients remained sick. So rather than go into medicine, he started thinking about how to design better drugs. Now at Princeton University, Jiang hopes to use artificial intelligence to help answer a fundamental question in drug design: How d…

At the International Conference on Renewable Resources & Biorefineries in Leuven, Belgium, Devanshu presented his recent work, and won the best PhD talk prize! He showed his progress on enhancing […] The post Devanshu Sajwan wins Best PhD Talk Prize in Leuven appeared first on Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis .

Nature Communications, Published online: 16 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-74475-1 Electrocatalytic NO reduction to NH3 is hindered by insufficient NO activation. Here, the authors report Cu1−Ti pairs that integrate the N affinity of Ti and O affinity of Cu to efficiently activate NO via bidirectional electron donation, thus achieving a high NH3 yield and Faradaic efficiency.

Scientific Reports, Published online: 16 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-56235-9 Bioengineered zinc oxide nanoparticles derived from Teucrium polium as a multifunctional platform for anticancer activity, hemocompatibility, larval toxicity and photocatalytic remediation

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 15 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41929-026-01551-6 Enzyme assemblies can enhance metabolic efficiency, yet the ways in which transient interactions fine tune catalytic outcomes remain poorly understood. This study demonstrates that a flexible partner protein transiently remodels an enzyme’s active site to favour productive chemistry in a flavonoid metabolon.

Quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) are widely used in consumer products and industrial processes as disinfectants. In water resource recovery facilities, a substantial portion of QACs reside with solids, and thus pass through anaerobic digesters. As antimicrobial agents, QACs present a potential risk to digester operation, yet we have limited understanding of their toxicity to this unit operati…

We have fully characterized the high-valent intermediates formed during the catalytic cycle of lactoperoxidase (LPO), a heme-containing enzyme present in milk, saliva, tears and airways, playing an important role in mammalian antimicrobial defense. Our combined approach of multifrequency (9–285 GHz) Electron Para­ magnetic Resonance (EPR) and resonance Raman (rR) spectroscopies allowed the identi…

Scientific Reports, Published online: 15 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-58077-x Schleyer hyperconjugative aromaticity as an efficient strategy to induce more delocalization in penguinone and thiopenguinone derivatives: a DFT investigation

Multi-isotope calibration (MICal) was evaluated as an alternative quantitative strategy for multi-elemental determination by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in complex agroalimentary matrices. Infrared-assisted digestion (IRAD) was employed as a rapid and acid-efficient sample preparation approach. Method performance was assessed using certified reference material and furthe…

Quantitative Structure-Property Relationship (QSPR) modelling provides an efficient computational framework for predicting physicochemical properties of drug molecules when experimental data are limited. In this study, we investigate the predictive capability of degree-based topological indices (TIs) derived from SMILES (Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry System) representations for modelling …

Nature Communications, Published online: 15 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-74205-7 Catalysts often change under working conditions, limiting their stability. This study shows that ammonia can direct ruthenium atoms onto ceria, forming durable active sites for efficient hydrogen production under high-pressure conditions.

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 15 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41557-026-02178-7 The selective functionalization of unprotected amines with alkenes remains a challenge in contemporary synthesis. Now a strategy has been developed for an alkyl swap of N-methylamines, enabling late-stage bioconjugation and peptide modification. The resulting retrosynthetic disconnection also streamlines the preparat…

Nature Communications, Published online: 15 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-74546-3 The authors report an N-heterocyclic carbene-catalyzed radical Smiles-type rearrangement which selectively produces 1,4-difunctionalized arenes.